Nakamura can plan ahead for write-in bid

Judge OKs signature gathering for school board trustee; final decision set for Oct. 6

San Diego  San Diego city school board trustee Katherine Nakamura is one step closer to a write-in campaign.

Though a Superior Court judge will not decide until Oct. 6 whether voters will be able to write her name on the ballot, the two-term incumbent was granted permission Thursday to begin collecting signatures and filing nomination papers for the Nov. 2 election.

Nakamura took her re-election fight for the San Diego Unified School District board to court after losing in June’s subdistrict primaries to math teacher Kevin Beiser and businessman Stephen Rosen, both of whom will go on to the general election.

She and her attorney argue that city election code, which bans write-in candidates for any general election, is outdated and unconstitutional. The school district follows that code.

“Under a Democratic system of government, the right to vote, and indeed, the right to run as a candidate in an election are fundamental rights and should not be abridged by anything short of a compelling government interest,” Nakamura’s attorney, Warren Tresiman, said in statement issued Thursday.

While Nakamura will have to wait more than a month for a definitive ruling regarding her candidacy, she called Thursday’s decision “very encouraging.”

If the judge does side with her, Nakamura’s write-in candidacy will hinge on her ability to gather 200 valid nomination signatures by Oct. 19, when nomination papers must be submitted to the county registrar to be considered valid, said Deborah Seiler, registrar of voters for San Diego County.

Nakamura had also hoped for permission to distribute pre-printed stickers that voters could affix to the ballot to avoid misspellings of her name. The judge denied her request but allowed the distribution of general campaign stickers.